School of Creative Arts, Film and Media (SCAFM)

I joined the University of Portsmouth in July 2003 as a New Directions Lecturer in Film Studies, having previously taught Media and Cultural Studies at The London College of Fashion, University of the Arts.
I am an Italian film historian with a specialist interest in Italian Star Studies, film costume, fashion, glamour, feminine beauty and national identity. My principal area of research lies in Italian female stardom of the post-war period (including Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, etc.). I have already published widely on this area and am now currently preparing a monograph entitled From Bust to Boom: The Female Film Star in Postwar Italy (1940-1965). My other current research projects are concerned with fashion and film costume in Italian cinema and film fandom related to Italian stardom.

Glamour discourse still remains a focal interest of mine following my pioneering essays on Glamour co-authored with Stephen Gundle. I am also interested more generally in film costume and Celebrity culture as well as women’s magazines and their cultural context.

I am responsible for coordinating several core and optional undergraduate course units: ‘Cinema and the Public Sphere’ (Core unit for year 2), ‘Fashion and Film’ (year 2 option), and ‘Analysing Stars’ (year 3 option), as well as contributing to teaching on a number of other courses on the Film Studies degree programme. I am also the International and Erasmus tutor for SCAFM and Year Two Film Studies Tutor and am a member of the SCAFM Research Committee.

Current Research^{[Back to top]}

Currently working on a new research project entitled Style on the Italian Screen – which examines the significance of fashion in Italian cinema from the postwar period to the present day.

Books^{[Back to top]}

Buckley, R. (In preparation). From Bust to Boom: The Female Film Star in Postwar Italy (1940-1965) (under consideration with BFI / Palgrave).

Book Chapters^{[Back to top]}

Buckley, R. (In preparation). Material dreams: costume and couture on the Italian screen’. In P. Bondanella (Ed.), The Italian Cinema Book (pp. 00-00). London: BFI / Palgrave Macmillan.

Buckley, R. (In preparation). Contemporary Italian ‘Divas’. In P. Bondanella (Ed.), The Italian cinema book (pp. 00-00). London: BFI / Palgrave Macmillan.

Buckley, R. (In preparation). Loving La Lollo: the enduring fandom of Gina Lollobrigida. In P. Brunette (Ed.), Companion to Italian cinema book (pp. 00-00). Oxford: Blackwell.

Buckley, R. (In preparation). From the Sala Bianca to the Italian screen. In S. Rigoletti & L. Bayman, (Eds.),  Popular Italian cinema (pp. 00-00). (Currently under review with Toronto University Press)

I am also currently working on a journal article on Lucia Bosé and film costume which I plan to send to The European Cinema Studies Journal.

Publications

Publications since 2008 [IR]

Journal Articles^{[Back to top]}

Buckley, R. (2006). Elsa Martinelli: Italy's Audrey Hepburn. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 26(3), 327-340.

Buckley, R. (2000). National body: Gina Lollobrigida and the cult of the star in the 1950s. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 20(4), 527-547.

Chapters in Edited Books^{[Back to top]}

Buckley, R. (2006). Marriage, motherhood and the Italian film stars of the 1950s. In P. Morris (Ed.), Women in Italy 1945-1960: an interdisciplinary study (pp. 35-49). New York and London: Palgrave.

Buckley, R., & Gundle, S. (2000b). Flash trash: Gianni Versace and the theory and practice of glamour. In S. Bruzzi & P. Church Gibson (Eds.), Fashion cultures: theories, explorations and analysis (pp. 331-348).  London: Routledge.

Buckley, R, & Gundle, S. (2000a). Fashion and glamour. In N. White & I. Griffiths (Eds.), The fashion business: theory, practice, image (pp. 37-54). Oxford: Berg.

Invited Papers^{[Back to top]}

Buckley, R. (2005). Italian Glamour. At Glamour: Theory and Practice symposium. New York: New York Fashion Institute of Technology.

Buckley, R. (2003). Acting Italian? Italian female film stars in 1950s Hollywood. At The excitement of influence: Italian Cinema in the Light of Hollywood. Birmingham: University of Birmingham.